Hydrogen gas has been focused as a fuel for a fuel cell. There are various methods for producing hydrogen gas, and out of these methods, the one for producing hydrogen gas from methanol or hydrocarbon (CnHm) such as methane has widely been known.
The former method for producing hydrogen gas from methanol mainly utilizes a methanol decomposition reaction represented by a formula (1), and a methanol steam-reforming reaction represented by a formula (2).CH3OH→2H2+CO   (1)CH3OH+H2O→3H2+CO2   (2)
The latter method of producing hydrogen gas from hydrocarbon (CnHm) utilizes the hydrocarbon steam-reforming reaction. The hydrocarbon steam-reforming reaction represented by a formula (3) is a reaction between hydrocarbon and steam.CnHm+nH2O→nCO+(n+m/2)H2   (3)
The methods of producing hydrogen gas described above use a catalyst carrying a metal powder such as platinum (Pt), copper (Cu), or nickel (Ni) on a carrier such as alumina. However, in the methanol decomposition reaction reacting at a temperature of about 250° C. or higher, a hydrogen production device using this carrier has low load responsiveness, since the alumina carrier has low thermal conductivity. Therefore, a heat-resistant catalyst having excellent thermal conductivity has been demanded.
Under the background described above, it has been shown that Ni3Al that is an intermetallic compound exhibits a catalyst activity to the methanol decomposition reaction, and based upon this finding, a hydrogen catalyst made of a Ni3Al foil has been proposed (see, for example, Patent Document 1). It has also been reported that a Ni3(Si, Ti) intermetallic compound having high strength at high temperature exhibits a catalytic action, and this intermetallic compound exhibits high conversion efficiency to hydrogen gas (see, for example, Patent Document 2).